SNOW?

SO excited to be home! Perhaps I got a little over-zealous, but I am so happy to be in the NW for a weekend and at the same time feel like I am cramming for an exam, so I was happy to get out and enjoy some of our trails this weekend. Also I had one of my favorite 4legged running partners with me for Saturday and Sunday, Piper.

Cramming for an exam? Try cramming for 33,000 feet of elevation gain. Hardrock is July 12 and with a lot of work travel, which means a lot of training from the hotel or on a treadmill, lets just say I don't feel prepared for the long climbs that await me in the San Juans. Never-the-less, I am excited for it and hope that with a couple more weekends like this one I can feel a bit more confident going into that race.

Thursday: I met a group for a threshold run: 3 mile warm up, 3 mile TH, 6 mile cool down
Friday: Double Si - this is where it snowed on me! Last weekend I was running in Sunny California in a sportsbra and this weekend I had to wear my Houdini and gloves and was still cold. What month are we in? It was pretty up there and as usual I heard the "again?" comments from the hikers. One guy said "I don't know if you are an inspiration or an annoyance."
Saturday: 4 hours on Tiger with Piper, Tom and Bill. Mind you I'd never met Tom or Bill before, but through mutual running friends we ended up running together and after Si Friday these guys were great! It was so nice and I really appreciated the company and motivation.
Sunday: what I thought would be a mellow hike up Granite turned into another tough day. More snow, and lots of it so we didn't make it to the top. So instead we opted for Si and Mike (friend that is supposed to be getting me into road cycling) decided he wanted to beat my times up Si from Friday... I didn't think it possible but sure enough, wobbly, screaming legs and heaving lungs we were up about a minute faster.

Great, great training weekend in the NW, intermixed with helping a college friend celebrate her birthday and seeing Spiderman 3... I slept well last night.